


Coping With Your Absence

by psychopass



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Angst, Comfort/Angst, Gen, Light Angst, it will be more like friendships than romance, more like angst or as well as i can write angst, so if i tag ship pairings in the future, there's not really any romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 13:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2653577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychopass/pseuds/psychopass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akane welcomes the new members of Division 1 the best she can. But they won't quite every be able to fill the absence of the old members and that makes it so much harder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story doesn't really contain a whole lot of romance and if there are any pairing tags in the future, it will lean a lot more towards friendships than relationships.

“Thank you for accompanying me,” Ginoza said as he approached the car where Akane was waiting.

“Not at all,” Akane replied. After all, it was the last she could do. Ginoza deserved the time to go visit Masaoka.

They get into the car and start driving back.

“Kagari never got a grave,” Ginoza remarked, looking out the window. “They were told to stop investigating. . .though I don’t think he’s alive anymore,”

Akane gripped the steering wheel tighter. They still thought Kagari ran away. Ginoza didn’t know what had really happened.

As wretched as the Sibyl System was, they still depended on it. And the Sibyl System operated on the beliefs that it was the only fair way to govern the people.

 _Kagari is dead._  Akane thought bitterly. She said nothing out loud. Ginoza couldn’t know.  She wouldn’t shake his faith as well.

“A new Inspector will start working with us tomorrow,” Ginoza said, changing the topic.

“New Enforcers too,” Akane added.

None of them shared out their discomforts out loud. They knew none of the new members could possibly take the old one’s places.

-0-

When they arrived back to the headquarters, Akane surveyed the office.

“We’ll have to clean out their desks,” Akane said.

“We?” Ginoza asked, a bit surprised. “Don’t drones usually do that?”

“I didn’t feel comfortable having the drones touch their stuff...I thought it would be better if we did ourselves..” she doesn’t finish her sentence, but Ginoza understands.

They divided the work with quiet agreement. Akane would clean out Kagari’s and Kogami’s desks while Ginoza would do Masaoka’s. It only seemed fair that way.

Akane carefully took the silly, colorful toys and figures off Kagari’s desk and placed them gently into a cardboard box. The desk looked awfully lonely without them.

Next was his jar of candy that he snacked on occasionally when he was working. Akane remembered that Kagari had always liked the green and orange jellybeans the best.

Without thinking, she twisted off the cap and plopped a green jelly bean in her mouth, just because she knew it would spite Kagari.

She waited for the shout of “Oi! Don’t eat the green ones, baka!” and when the jar would be swiped from her grasp.

It didn’t come.

Akane shook her head. _Stop being silly._ She chided herself, as she placed the lid back on and set the jar aside.

She placed the rest of his items in the box, placing his PSP last, making sure it was safe, as she knew Kagari would never forgive her if she got a scratch on his game.

When the desk was cleared out, Akane couldn’t help feeling guilty, as if she was deliberately ridding everything that reminded her of him.

 

Next was Kogami’s desk. Akane took a deep breath. The desk was mostly empty, with nothing that would have distracted him from his work.

He needed 100% concentration, after all.

The only thing that caught Akane’s eye was a half open of cigarettes -the brand he always smoked- and a lighter. Akane took the box of cigars with a shaky hand and pulled one out.

She had never smoked before now, but the cigarettes seemed to be urging her to try.

 _You? Smoke?_   That’s new. Kogami’s voice snorted, with amusement.

“There’s nothing wrong with trying something new,” Akane retorted.

“Tsunemori? Are you okay? Who are you talking to?” Ginoza asked, concern on his face.

“Huh? I-” Akane started. Her eyes then widened and she mentally slapped herself.

 _Stop hallucinating, baka!_ she chastised.

“It’s nothing,” Akane reassured before returning her gaze to the lighter. “Ginoza-san, have you ever smoked?”

“I’ve tried it once or twice,” Ginoza admitted. “Why?”

His gaze traveled to the box of cigars in her hand and his eyes turn questioning.

“Could you maybe show me? How to do it, I mean,” Akane asked automatically.

"I know it's none of my concern, but you shouldn't smoke Tsunemori. It would affect your health," Ginoza said gently. 

"I just want to try it once," she assures. Then pauses. "..For Kogami," 

Ginoza nods. "Just this once for Kogami, then," 

Ginoza walked over and accepted the lighter and a cigarette. He lit the cigarette and placed it in his mouth, before handing the lighter back to her. He took a long puff and then made a face.

“I’ve never liked it,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

Akane lit the cigarette in suit and took a puff, just like Ginoza had done. She coughed and almost dropped the cigar. It tasted horrible and made her head rush. The sensation was odd and unpleasant- she honestly hated it- but the smell of the cigarette lingered in the air and made her pause.

It reminded her of the thrill of the chase and the heart pumping adrenaline, and most importantly, Kogami.

The smell was oddly enough comforting. Ginoza had disposed of his, but Akane took another puff and watched the smoke dance around her as the smell got stronger.

Ginoza saw Akane slip the pack of cigarettes and the lighter into her pocket from the corner of his eye, but he didn’t say anything. 

They resumed their cleaning.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After all, she's not the only one healing.

They had just received word of an Area Stress Level Warning where a few citizen’s crime coefficents seemed to be rising rapidly. Akane went with Ginoza and Hinakawa, ordering the rest of them to stay back unless they were called for.

Akane gripped the wheel as she drove through the streets. When they arrived, a group of people were in the process of beating up another citizen.

“We have to stop-” Akane started, before a voice interrupted hers.

 _“Why don’t you just run them over?”_ Kagari's voice joked.

“No way, Ka-!” Akane protested out loud.

“Huh?” Hinakawa asked, in quiet surprise. Ginoza furrowed his brow.

Akane slapped a hand over her mouth. _I did it again?_ she asked mentally. 

She apologizes, her embarrassment obvious. Ginoza makes a face towards Hinakawa saying _Don’t ask. Leave it be._

Thankfully, Hinakawa understands.

Ginoza studies Akane crestfallen face. He knows she was thinking of Kagari and opens his mouth to ask if she was alright.

She was good at hiding it, but she was still healing.

Then again, he was still healing as well.

He respects her space and makes no comment.

 

-0-

 

Some nights, Ginoza stays up later than usual and he pulls out Masaoka’s old bottle of alcohol and pours himself a shot. The alcohol burns his throat and lights a fire in his stomach that isn’t all unpleasant.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Ginoza mutters, running a hand through his hair. “I must be an awful son,”

Dime comes over and sits by his side, wagging his tail.

“Dime misses you too,” Ginoza adds. His voice bounces off the wall and it makes the whole room seem bigger and even emptier.

There’s no reply, which is heartbreakingly obvious. Ginoza sighs and stuffs his hand into the corner of the drawer in his desk, and pulls out a small, neatly folded piece of paper that was yellowing slightly.

Ginoza carefully unfolds the paper and stares at the drawing in front of him.

It was a silly drawing he had made in school when he was younger. It was a hand drawn picture of him and Masaoka. He wasn’t quite sure why he had kept it all these years, but he had. And every so often he had even pulled it out to look at it before mentally berating himself and shoving the drawing back into the drawer again.

That day in school, the teachers had asked the students to draw something they wished for. Other kids wished for money and good luck, lots of friends and a good life- all of the cliches. The teacher had giggled when she saw Ginoza’s drawing.

“Silly, Ginoza-kun,” the teacher laughed. “But you must see your father everyday, don’t you?”

She shook her head and walked away, amused at the child’s drawing, but Ginoza’s gaze had only darkened as he stared at his picture.

She didn’t know. That had been a first. Most people treated him like a latent criminal because of his father, and he had thought, _“I’ll show them I'm above the criminals, ”_

He had worked his way up to an Inspector with his best friend Kogami and when Kogami had become a latent criminal himself, Ginoza felt like he had betrayed once again. He swore he wouldn't go down that path. 

He did everything to keep his psycho pass as clear as possible, but in the end, it was all in vain. Masaoka’s death had been the breaking point.

Ginoza clearly remembered the feelings of rage and regret that tore him up. _“I’ll kill Makishima,”_  he had thought. _“If it meant getting Dad getting back, I wouldn’t let anything stand in my way. I would do whatever what it takes, whether it be murder or not,”_

When his crime coefficient rose and he was demoted to latent criminal, he strangely didn’t feel any regret.

He had been so foolish, so bitter, so blinded by greed and grudges, that he failed to realize the truth before it was all too late. And for that, he would never be able to forgive himself.

Ginoza took one last look at the picture. He was only torturing himself. He crumpled it up and threw it in the waste bin and cursed outloud. 

Kogami was gone too now. He wondered what his best friend would say at a time like this.

“Tsunemori’s getting real sharp,” Ginoza chuckled. 

“She’ll keep getting smarter,” Kogami would reply. And Ginoza had no doubt that she would.

Akane Tsunemori was interesting, to say the least. She was tough as nails and as fragile as glass at the same time. She always kept the same clear Hue color with a crime coefficient the Dominators could not touch. She was as diligent as always and had grown resourceful and sharp and, perhaps, most importantly, she put others before herself.

Ginoza admired her as the Inspector that he could was and never could be. He wouldn’t allow her to trail down the same path as Kogami and himself. After all, she still had a bright future in front of her.

He misses them so much.

It wasn't the same without Kogami's annoying intelligence and sharp wit and Masaoka's hearty laugh and Kagari's jokes. He knows he's not the only one. He catches Yayoi glancing at Kagari's old desk sometimes and he notices her look of disappointment when she realizes there won't be any silly prank or lame puns today and she turns silently back to her work. He notices that whe they're on a particularly hard case that leaves all of them stumped, Akane will turn slightly to the right and open her mouth as if to ask for Kogami's opinion before realizing he isn't there. He himself constantly hears Masaoka's last words in his head, about how his eyes look just like his when he was younger and he breaks a bit. 

They were all grieving, all struggling to get used to the new surroundings. 

He turned off the light and laid down in bed, the taste of alcohol and nostalgia burning in the back of his throat. 

He stays awake fighting the darkness for a bit longer, before a wave of tiredness pulls him into the empty blackness.

He's glad, that just for a little bit, he gets to escape reality.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's gotten used to a lot of the unpleasant things in life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Since we don't know much about Hinakawa's past, I made up a few things that may or may not become non-canonical later, but oh well. I enjoyed writing for this guy all the same.

Hinakawa Shou is a holo designer with a few too many problems. Holos can create disguises. They can form new images of someone. Hinakawa wished he could create a new persona for himself, to start over from a clean slate. But Holos change images, not personalities.

So he’s stuck with himself.

Hinakawa was quiet, almost too quiet. He almost never spoke unless spoken too and he never said anything more than necessary. It was quite clear he lacked the confidence, but he followed and carried out orders just as well as the rest of them. Hinakawa’s quiet but he’s not dense. Thanks to his job of being a holo designer, he has grown quite good at reading people. He’s grown good at telling apart lies from the truth and being able to distinguish what’s real or fake. He keeps these observations in his head though. He takes note of the small things, that other people notice but don’t reflect on.

For instance, Inspector Akane was almost always the first person in the office and the last one out, drowning herself in work. Hinakawa’s never had a sister, but he’s sure that if he was to describe his ideal sister, it would come pretty close to Akane Tsunemori. She understands the value of a human life and the weight of the Dominator. She doesn’t pull the trigger unless she needs to and breaks the rules when needed. She treats him and the other Enforcers as actual people instead of hunting dogs and shields. And not just people. She treats them like equals. It’s the first time someone’s treated Hinakawa like that in a long time.

He had grown used to the graying walls of the rehabilitation center, where everyday they would remind the prisoners to “keep their psycho pass clear, and things will get better for them”.

Of course it’s one big lie. All of it is. A rising crime coefficient is not easily fixed and unlike a cold, there’s no cure for it.

He had gotten acquainted with the idea of being stuck in the rehabilitation center for the rest of his life before one day, one of the nurses said that he had a visitor. That was a surprise. Nobody had ever come to visit Hinakawa before, and he’s gotten used to that. He’s grown used to a lot of things like being pushed aside and kept in the dark as he desperately searches for a light that isn't there.

He was once quite the active child. He would always smile and would always be running around.

 _“You’re ever the angel, Shou,"_ his mother would laugh.

But then the accident happened and his mother was gone forever. Dead.

Just like that, the sunlight from his life faded and depression took over him. Depression felt suffocating. It grabbed and pulled and prodded at him, hanging over his head. Voices in his head taunted him and he couldn’t do anything about it. It was as if the world through his eyes was slowly turning grayer and grayer with each passing day.

 _Worthless._ the voices in his head would jeer. _Why couldn't you save your own mother? She's gone because of you._ and he feels himself slowly falling victim to them. 

Once he started agreeing with the voices, he found it easier to ignore them. The voices were still there of course, but they had faded to a constant hum in the background.

Then he discovered the pills.

They’re packaged in a bright box with large letters that claim to solve all of your problems. It’s the instant solution to depression.

He knows that underneath the bright wrappers and shiny box, it’s all a big lie. The pills barely have any effect on him. It’s worked for dozens of other people except him. But Hinakawa’s grown desperate while searching for happiness. For salvation. So he tells himself that the pills will work eventually, he just has to believe.

They don’t. But he keeps buying them anyways.

Hinakawa walks down the facilitation center and sits down in front of the glass screen that separates him from an unfamiliar woman. Of course, it’s stupid to hope that it was some family member that had come to visit him. After all, he no longer has any living relatives that care about him. Still, he can’t help but feel a bit disappointed as he sits down.

His first time talking to Akane Tsunemori was as awkward as awkward gets. He fumbles over his word and mumbles them so that she keeps having to ask him to repeat them. He apologizes profusely but she continuously tells him alright. Her patience for him is amazing.

She tells him her proposal, about how he could become an Enforcer for the MWPSB. He’s surprised when she says tests had shown he had the aptitude for it. He didn’t think he had the potential for anything anymore.

He knows how the Enforcers are all treated like hunting dogs instead of humans. Everyone does. He also knows its probably his only chance to ever leave the rehabilitation center. It’s freedom for pride.

But he stares at Akane Tsunemori with her understanding eyes and gentle smile, and he just _knows_ that this woman has a heart of gold and nerves of steels. He knows that she’s not here to offend him.

Hinakawa’s been in the rehabilitation center for the longest time and he’s always thought that that was the end of the road for him. There were no more choices for him. But now, a new path has opened up, and although he will have to stumble along it blindly, he takes it.

 

-0-

 

He realizes he was right about Akane. She’s kind and understanding with him, just like almost everyone else in Division 1 is to him. (Except for Mika, which he at first finds rather unpleasant, but when he later learns about how latent criminals killed her two best friends, he realizes she’s a good person underneath the cold exterior.)

For the first time in his life, he feels like he has regained a purpose in life and his vision starts to become the brightest it's been since his mother’s death.

 

-0-

 

He’s started calling Akane “onee-chan” in his head for awhile now, but when one day he calls her that out loud by accident, he’s mortified and apologizes immediately. However, instead of scolding him or telling him he has no business of thinking Inspectors in that sort of way, she looks pleasantly surprised.

“Do you really think of me as an older sister?” Akane says, sounding amused as she turns away from her work.

When he mumbles that, yes, yes he does, Akane smiles and stands up and hugs him.

His eyes widen and he staggers slightly. Nobody’s hugged him in a long time. He usually cringes at physical contact, even if it was just accidentally brushing arms or someone tapping his shoulder. But Akane’s touch is so gentle and reassuring, he feels like he's back in his mother's arms again. .

“I’m honored then,” Akane said. “Hinakawa-kun is a very good person and I’m honored to know that he deems me worthy of being a sister like figure,”

Hinakawa’s eye’s widen again. Then he closes them and smiles.

_If onee-chan thinks of me as a good person, that I suppose living my life as me isn’t so bad._

He hugs back.

It’s been awhile since he’s felt comfortable in his own skin.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regrets plague her all the time, with their haunting 'would haves' 'should haves' and 'could haves'.

_I don’t want to hear anything. I don’t want to see anything. Please. Let me remain innocent. Let me remain ignorant_ , are the only thoughts that are screaming inside of Mika’s head when the truth of the Sibyl System is revealed to her. She wants so badly to remain selfish, remain locked up in her world where the only thing that mattered was keeping her psycho pass clear and fulfilling her job.

When its over, when the Chief is done explaining, Mika is too scared to talk, too scared to move. Slowly, she brings her hands together, letting the sound of her clapping fill the quiet room. All she can think about is how terrified she is and how repulsive the whole system sounds and how much she hates the truth--but she keeps clapping and praising the system. After all the system is absolute - it must remain absolute, it is the only way to retain order... _That’s right Mika, keep thinking like that, keep your psycho pass clear, whatever you do, don’t let your psycho pass cloud._ She knew one wrong move could end her and even though she knows it’s futile, she keeps clapping, clapping for her life.

When they talk about Mika ‘coloring Akane black’ all Mika can think about is how much she wants this terrible nightmare to end. She can’t do it, she shouldn’t do it, she should just take death and call it the end - _I won’t do it_ , she repeats to herself. But she knows that in the end she will. She’ll do it because she’s too terrified for her own life and she’s too selfish to lose everything - too selfish to die.

She knows.

 

-0-

 

The task they give her is sickening. All they want her to do is locate the position of Aoi Tsunemori - Akane’s grandmother. It’s not even close to a dangerous task. It’s not difficult - all it would take is a simple data search. Anyone could do it in just minutes. But they want her to do it just to spite her. Just to make her feel the guilt even though she doesn’t know what they’re going to do Aoi Tsunemori, she knows it will be awful.

She wants so badly to return to her naive life back at the academy, where her two friends were still alive and where Rikako Ouryu was just some popular girl with a too blank gaze. Where all the students were taught to focus on their studies and being decorous and courteous and no one had to worry about latent criminals or losing another one of their friends. She took on the life of an Inspector to rid society of all those despicable latent criminals.

Everyday Mika plagues herself with _‘should haves’_ _‘could haves’_ and _‘would haves’_. She should have warned her friends about Rikako Ouryo - she could have prevented their deaths - if only she was paying more attention, they would still be alive.

She despises Akane’s ways of conducting herself and treating Enforcers like equals. The Enforcers should know their place, they are the hunting dogs that are below the Inspectors - after all they’re latent criminals too. That meant they were no different than the rest of them. Latent criminals had no place in society.

But after this, she might not either.

She hesitates before searching. At least, she would be alive in the facilitation centers...perhaps she would even have the aptitude to come back as an Enforcer. She decides that having a restricted lifestyle was better than having none at all. And perhaps, maybe nothing will happen. Maybe her psycho pass will remain clear, and that’s that.

There are a lot of 'what if’s' but her choices were currently very limited. She hates how easily she's being controlled, how easily she's letting them control her. She should have a stronger will than this. But she doesn't. She's lost her resolve. 

So she searches.

She types in the keys and it takes less than a minute to locate Aoi Tsunemori. She shows the address to the Chief and Togane and they dismiss her. She forces herself to bow and takes shaky steps to the exit. It takes her all her might not to run out of the room and instead walk out of the room with her head held high with whatever little pride she still had left. 

 

-0-

 

The moment Mika steps out of the patrol car, all she can see is the flaming building. When she sees the people inside, she wants to puke. Even though they’re long gone by now, she can hear their screams, hear their shouts. Their voices are terrible and all she wants is for it to stop, for everything to _stop_. She signed up to be an Inspector, not for this nightmarish hell.

Then she sees the man hand Akane the black box, and for the first time, she watches her usually cool collected sempai break down. For the first time, she sees true rage in Akane’s eyes as she shouts and struggles in Ginoza’s grasp. She stands there watching Akane kicking the air, screaming and cursing at the man as Ginoza tries to pull her back.

When she turns and looks for Togane, Mika is repulsed at his subtle satisfactory smirk and even more so at herself for causing this mess.

All she feels now is regret. It’s the same burning regret as the one when her friends died. It’s the same painstaking feeling when everything came flooding back to her. She should have...she could have...if only she had...then things might have turned out differently.

_If only she had._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggled with writing this chapter because Mika isn't one of my most favorite characters but I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. I like to think Mika's a person with a one track mind (which is why some things in this chapter are so repetitive) whether it's thinking about regrets or obsessing over her psycho pass. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter though!


	5. Letters to the Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dead don't read letters. But she still writes them anyways.

She was dreaming again. But she couldn't do anything about it. She was walking down an awfully familiar walkway. . .

 _No!_ she shouted inside her head.  _Turn back now...turn back before it's too late._ But she can't. She can't control her own body, and soon enough a familiar white haired man is standing on the railing above, with a painfully familiar girl in his hands. Both whom should be dead. 

"Yuki!" Akane calls. But her voice fails her. She's just as powerless in this dream as she was back then, when she watched it unfold in front of her. She doesn't want to see it again, she doesn't want to- 

Makishima draws the knife across Yuki's throat and Akane lets out a soundless scream, sinking to the floor. 

And suddenly she's sinking even furthur. A hole opens up in the floor and she's falling into the blackness, her flailing seemingly futile, before a hand grasps hers and pulls her up to another walkway. A walkway in the Nona Tower. 

Another painfully familiar face. Akane tried pinching herself, but unfortunately that didn't help her wake up. Perhaps flinging herself back over the railing would work? She looks at the ground, to the sides, anywhere but his face. 

Kagari has his annoyed face on, his arms crossed. 

"Tell me, Akane, why did you become an Inspector?" he asks. 

Akane takes a deep breath and starts backing away. Kagari repeats the question and Akane wills him to stop, but of course, dream Kagari listened to her orders about as much as real life Kagari did. 

She backs up and feels the cold metal of the railing beneath her hands, before the railing gives way and suddenly she's falling back into the void again. She squeezes her eyes shut, willing for the darkness to just hurry up and engulf her. 

Voices swirl around her. Togane's, Kamui's, Chief Kasei's...

_What color are you Akane Tsunemori?_

_Can the system judge itself?_

_I'll color you black, Inspector Tsunemori..._

_Your rights as an Inspector have been evoked..._

_Suffer Akane Tsunemori, struggle...but the system will remain absolute_

Then she hears a voice that speaks above the clamor and seems to slap her awake. 

_"Don't let them win, Inspector,"_

 

And then she wakes up, bolting upright, breathing heavily. 

She placed a hand over her racing heart.  _Breathe. In. Out. In. Out._

She lies back in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to gather her thoughts. The memories of the dream were already fading, and she knew that soon they would become fuzzy blurs before the dream came back. It always did - changing a little bit every time, but still the same. 

She doesn't need a hue check. She knows the dream will leave no mark, it'll have no effect. 

Akane Tsunemori was still clear as ever, unstained in the world of black. 

She got up again and walked over to her desk and nearly pulls the drawer out of its place as she reached for the familiar packs of cigarettes and lighter. She lit a cigarette up and took a long inhale. It calmed her down a bit, but not much. 

It had been 2 months since Kamui died and the Sybil System had agred to administer a collective psycho pass.

She almost lost control back there- almost let her crime coefficient get to high, for the first time in her life - it was only thanks to Kamui that it didn't. 

She sat down in her desk and pulled out paper and a pencil and began writing a letter. The pen dances over the page in a messy scrawl, but it doesn't matter. Once she finished, Akane carefully folded it up and pulled open separate drawer already filled with several other folded letters. Letters she will never send.

Correction - letters she will never get to send. After all, the dead didn't read letters. 

She pulled out the letters and flipped through them again, with a faint smile. 

 

_Dear Yuki,_

_I'm not supposed to talk about my job as an Inspector, but Makishima's been apprehended. You can rest easier now. And you know that Enforcer you admire so much? Kogami Shinya? Well I think you'll be glad that it was all thanks to him. I guess you owe him 2 favors now huh? I owe him a few myself now... He's had to go away for awhile - you know how Enforcers are always busy-..but I'm sure that he'll be back soon...and then we can both repay our debts and perhaps hang out together? Kogami's really not into that kind of thing, but I trust he'll cave in just this once. I'm sure you'd like to get to know him better._

_Love, Akane_

 

_Dear Makishima,_

_Justice has been administered. Although perhaps not the way I would have preferred. Sometimes I think back to the time where you could have shot me. You would have too, if it weren't for the empty gun. Sometimes I applaud you for your decisiveness. I wish I could have pulled the trigger as easily on you so that Kogami Shinya didn't have too._

_Sincerely, Akane._

 

 

_Dear Kagari,_

_I tried cooking again today. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so well...I miss the taste of your cooking! I wonder how you do it? Ah well, you never would tell me your secrets anyways; wasn't it something like 'a chef never reveals his secrets?' Something silly like that, at least. Oh well. I'll do the shopping and you can do the cooking. There's a new Enforcer who has taken your desk (not to offend you or anything, it's just that you haven't been around lately-). His names Hinakawa. It's funny how you two are almost polar opposites! But at least it means getting some peace and quiet - and also he doesn't play as many games like a certain someone...But nevertheless, I think you'd get along with him. Can you believe Kogami's gone and gotten himself into more trouble? And here, the hypocrite's telling us to be safe. There's also a new Inspector, Mika. I like to entertain myself with the idea of how you would too would get along! Mika would surely have pulled out all of her hair if she had to deal with you! But there was something I wanted to ask you - you were the first person outside to find out the truth, and they made you keep the secret...They said the risk of you revealing the secret was too high. But I know you. You aren't some kind of blabbermouth...I know the truth now too...but if you had walked back out, would you have told me?_

_Your friend (and fellow failure of a cook), Akane._

 

 

_Dear Pops,_

_I hope it is okay to call you pops? Everyone else has done it, and I wish I had done it earlier too. You've been away for awhile and it's been a little dreary. No one's laugh was quite as genuine as yours! I suspect you were also the one who could keep Ginoza-san in line. He's been doing well too, although I can tell he obviously misses you. He's cut his hair too! Can you believe it? And he's gotten rid of his glasses too. He says he hates his face, but I doubt that. Who could hate having such beautiful eyes? We have a few new Enforcers, they're quite interesting...but it just all feels so different. But I suppose perhaps I am a bit too sentimental? I miss having you around, pops. I wonder what you would say if you were still around...perhaps something about the young being so naive and lively? Ah..but in the end I still defer to your wisdom and odd sayings. You really are quite a father aren't you? You did a fantastic job watching over us...I hope you'll continue doing so._

_Yours Truly, Akane._

 

_Dear Inspector Aoyonagi,_

_I can't say I knew you well, but you were no doubt a formidable and well respected fellow Inspector, so I mourn your death just like the others do. Perhaps your crime coefficient rose too high in the end, but that didn't break your spirit. You died with a good heart, and as a hero fulfilling her duty, and that is what I shall remember you as. I look up to you and I hope that someday, I'll be able to be just as brave._

_Your Fellow Inspector, Akane._

 

_Dear Misako Togane,_

_I have nothing to say except for the fact that I do not think I regret your death very much. It was Kamui who revealed your true psycho pass and pulled the trigger on you in the end, I believe I am just as responsible. Thus, I will carry the weight of your death along with the others I have taken part of. Although, I think you will be significantly lighter than the others._

_Inspector Akane Tsunemori_

 

_Dear Togane,_

_I don't know what Mika did in the end. However, I don't think she was brave enough to pull the trigger. She has a very delicate mind, I'm afraid. Yet she still has a pure one. The only good thing I'll remember about you is the dithering illusion that perhaps the act you always put up wasn't always an act. However, I won't ever be able to forgive you, nor do I want to._

_Inspector Akane Tsunemori._

 

Akane glances at the letter she had just written moments before and hesitated putting it in with the other letters. She opened it up and read it one last time. 

 

_Dear Kogami,_

_A lot has happened since you've left. I wonder what you've been up too? Perhaps more trouble? I hope you haven't made a nuisance of yourself, Kogami Shinya. We still need you back in the MWPSB, I'm afraid. So, if you don't mind, we're hoping you'll be coming back soon. I'd appreciate the help. When you're back, I'm sure that we'll both have a lot to talk about._

_Sincerely, Akane._

 

Akane pursed her lips and decided not to place the letter into the drawer. And while hope was thin and hanging delicately by a thread, it was still there. He was still alive, still out there, she knew. 

After all, the drawer was for the letters to the dead. 

She puts the drawers back and puts out her cigarette. 

"I'm waiting, Kogami Shinya," Akane smiled softly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop! Last chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!


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